SPECIAL RELEASE:
MSF REACTS TO CSICOP
DEBUNKING OF MJ-12
ParaNet Alpha 0826 -- The Moore-Shandera-Friedman Research Project
(MSF) is valiantly battling back against charges that the Majestic-12
documents, released by the team in April, are fraudulent. The charges were
raised in a press release issued by CSICOP on August 20th [MJ12.SR], in
which arch-skeptic Phil Klass called the documents "clumsy counterfeits,"
and cited a letter from the National Archives [MJ12DOC6.UFO] which raised
doubts about the authenticity of a key piece of corroborative evidence,
the so-called Cutler-to-Twining memo of July 14, 1954 [MJ12DOC3.UFO].
In an attempt to provide the opportunity for MSF to answer the objec-
tions raised in the press release, ParaNet has talked with all three mem-
bers of the MSF team: William L. Moore of Burbank, CA, UFO investigator
and co-author of "The Philadelphia Experiment" and "The Roswell Incident"
(the latter detailing a UFO crash in 1947 which stands to be confirmed if
the MJ-12 documents are real); Jaime Shandera of North Hollywood, CA, an
independent television producer who had little to do with UFOs until team-
ing up with Moore in 1981; and Stanton T. Friedman of New Brunswick, Cana-
da, a nuclear physicist and UFO lecturer.
All three members of the team agreed that nothing brought out by Klass in the release conclusively showed Majestic-12 to be a hoax; in fact none of the members seemed to acknowledge that any damage was done whatsoever.
Below are some of the objections raised by Klass, and selected ans-
wers given by the team members.
o Item: Robert Cutler was in Europe at the time the Cutler-to-Twining Memo
was allegedly written.
Friedman: "That's a stupid argument. The memo wasn't signed by
Cutler. [But] he gave his people instructions to keep the ball
rolling while he was gone.
"We have two other memos from Cutler to Twining, which we've
gotten at the Library of Congress, one is signed and the other
isn't. The one that's not signed has an `/s/' indicating where the
original was signed."
Moore: "The absence of a signature on the document is consistent
with the fact that Cutler was overseas when it was written. If the
document had been signed, then we would have reason to worry.
o Item: The lack of the characteristic "Eagle" watermark found on all of
Cutler's memoranda stationery.
Friedman: "But how many? They didn't have at the Eisenhower Library
OR the National Archives, these two Cutler memoranda that we found
at the Library of Congress! Absence of evidence is not evidence for
absence."
o Item: The lack of a Top-Secret registration number on the document.
Friedman: "Neither of the other documents we got from the Library of
Congress had registration numbers, either."
Moore: "NONE of the Top-Secret Cutler memoranda we have seen have
registration numbers."
o Item: The presence of typewriter key impressions through the back of the
document indicates it was typed as an original, not as a carbon.
Moore: "This just shows that [Klass] has not done a shred of
original research. He couldn't have looked at the original. If he
had, he would have seen that the paper is definitely old, and the
ink on the paper is blue.
Friedman: "I have trouble with that. The ink is blue. Who uses blue
typewriter ribbons?"
o Item: The use of the security classification "Top Secret - Restricted,"
which did not come into use by the NSC until at least a decade later.
Friedman: "Well, that's what these guys are saying, but I don't even
know that that's true. `Restricted' can mean `nobody else sees.'
Also, in that same year of '54, the Atomic Energy Act brought in the
use of `Secret-Restricted Data' when you're dealing with anything
nuclear...and Twining obviously thought there was a nuclear
connection with UFOs because in a 1947 memo he said all the data
should go to the AEC and the Nuclear Energy Propulsion Applications
Project."
o Item: The Sept. 24, 1947 letter from Pres. Truman to Secy. Forrestal is
not consistent in format with other Truman letters to Cabinet members.
Moore: "Nonsense. We have a letter from a Congressional historian
that says that the form and style ARE consistent."
o Item: The Truman letter was created by "superimposing a spurious message
on a photocopy of an authentic Truman letter."
Shandera: "The 35mm film we have of the [Truman] document is very
clear, its a very good photo. If anything like that had been done,
it would easily show up."
Moore: "He's dreaming. The evidence is just the opposite. If you
look at the document on the film, there are some areas where a
different color ink was probably used, probably red, which contrast
highly with the rest of the document. If this were a [composite
photocopy], there wouldn't be this much contrast."
In the CSICOP press release, and previously in other media, Klass
has said that he has invited Moore and his associates to "join in his own
efforts" to get to the bottom of the MJ-12 scenario. Moore claims that
Klass "has never extended such an invitation to any one of us."
Moore says that more information on MJ-12 will be released "toward
the end of September," including a point-by-point response to the
objections raised by Klass in the release. As usual, ParaNet will be the
first computer-based media in the world to carry the story as it unfolds.